Patna, July 13: The state government is contemplating mega industrial cities and parks along the proposed Amritsar-Delhi-Calcutta Eastern India Industrial Corridor.

The government has directed its industries department to procure the blueprint of the proposed corridor project from the Centre and locate non-agricultural land for industrialisation and urbanisation in Bihar.

Delhi has shown interest towards developing an Eastern India Industrial Corridor, parallel to the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor of the railways, on the lines of the underconstruction Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).

A delegation of Bihar Industries Association (BIA), which met chief minister Nitish Kumar in this regard earlier this month, said the plan was to come up with mega industrial cities along the new corridor.

“We had a detailed meeting with the chief minister. According to the initial information about the project, the corridor from Punjab to Calcutta will pass through Mohania in Buxar district before entering Patna and then exiting to Hazaribagh through Gaya and Barhi. Details of the corridor will be sought. Industrial estates would be planned on around 100 hectares along the new corridor, which will definitely pass close to the state capital,” KPS Keshri, the BIA president, said.

Plots would be acquired by the Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority.

Last month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh formed an inter-ministerial group to begin the groundwork for the Amritsar-Delhi-Calcutta corridor project.

The letter — a copy of which is with The Telegraph — from the PMO states that the new corridor will cover Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Ambala, Saharanpur, Delhi, Roorkee, Moradabad, Bareilly, Aligarh, Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, Asansol, Durgapur and Calcutta. It would be patterned on the DMIC and will use the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) as the backbone. The eastern DFC extends from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni near Calcutta and would be structured around the highway system on this route. It will also leverage the inland waterway system being developed along the National Waterway 1, which extends from Allahabad to Haldia. The corridor will cover Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal.

Last month, Naveen Verma, principal secretary, industries, said the Centre was about to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) on the eastern India corridor. He had said the state government would invite Amitabh Kant, the chief executive and managing director of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Limited. “In Delhi, we had talks with Kant. The DPR of the Eastern India Industrial Corridor is being made. The new corridor will open more avenues towards the industrialisation of the state,” Verma had said.

“The department, on the chief minister’s directions, is doing the needful. A blueprint of the proposed corridor will be sought and the state government will plan accordingly. Plots would be scouted once the plan is studied properly, say within a couple of months,” a department official, on condition of anonymity, told The Telegraph.

The inter-ministerial group, formed by the Prime Minister, has six officials belonging to different departments such as economic affairs, industrial policy and promotion, railways, urban development among others.

Sources said the stress would be on tourism and healthcare. “Though things are in a preliminary stage, the chief minister has expressed desire that the industrial estates or cities mainly concentrate on the tourism sector and healthcare. A medical hub (healthcare city) in Bihar consisting of superspeciality hospitals, is definitely an option as the new corridor comes up,” said another department official.

SPEED WAY

PROJECT

Amritsar-Delhi-Calcutta Eastern India Industrial Corridor to run parallel to the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor of the railways.

Patterned on the underconstruction Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor

PLAN

Procure blueprint of the proposed Eastern India Industrial Corridor project

Develop mega industrial cities along the corridor focusing on tourism and healthcare sectors

Locate non-agricultural land for industrialisation and urbanisation

ROUTE

Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Ambala, Saharanpur, Delhi, Roorkee, Moradabad, Bareilly, Aligarh, Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, Asansol, Durgapur and Calcutta